Treating prior terminations of parental rights as grounds for present terminations

The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 recognized that in certa in egregious circumstances, states need not seek to reunify a family before terminating the rights of abusive and neglectful parents. Washington State responded by revising ifs termination of parental rights statute to treat parents' violent criminal convictions as sole grounds for terminating paren tal rights. This Comment argues that the Washington statute should be furth er amended to recognize that a termination of rights to a previous child ma y serve as grounds for terminating rights to a present child if the State f inds the parent's continuing behavior puts the child at risk for abuse or n eglect. Washington courts have already recognized that parents who have mis treated children are likely to continue to do so. Furthermore, other state laws that treat prior terminations as sufficient proof of a parent's presen t unfitness have been justified on public policy grounds and upheld under c onstitutional scrutiny. This Comment concludes that the proposed statutory revision is constitutional because the compelling State interest in protect ing children outweighs the rights of abusive and neglectful parents, and th e Washington statute is already extremely protective of parents' due proces s rights.